Anna's Cooking Adventure

My cooking skills used to reach only to heating up a microwave meal. With my friend's encouragement, my 2009 New Year's resolution was to try at least one new receipe every week. I fell in love with cooking since, and find cooking the best way to quiet my mind and melt my stress. So I would like to use this blog to document my adventure, show off my results (all pictures taken by myself), and share the recipes I found or modified or created.

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The first time i use bacon bits in bolognese sauce and it tasted sooooo good! This recipe made quite a huge batch of sauce so I simply freeze half of it for "rainy days".

Ingredients

400g minced pork/beef

200g bacon blocks

4 celery stalks, finely diced

4 small carrots, finely diced

2 big garlic cloves, crushed

1 red paprika, finely chopped

2 onions, finely chopped

2 X 400g cans peeled tomatoes with juice

2 rosemary stalks

1tsp dried oregano

Freshly grounded black pepper

Methods

1. In a pan, brown the bacon bits for about 5-10 minutes. Add minced meat and cook about 5 minutes. Transfer the meat to a slow cooker.

2. In the pan, cook the onions and garlic until fragrant. Transfer them to the slow cooker.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients to the slow cooker and give it a good stir. Cook on low heat for about 8-10 hours.

4. Mix the sauce with your favorite cooked pasta, dump the mixed pasta into a casserole dish, scatter with a generous amount of grated cheese, and cook under a hot grill for about 5-10 minutes. Served with fresh ciabatta bread.

I tweaked Martha's recipe a bit by using regular curry powder (couldn't find Jamaican curry powder), using more peas, using more coconut milk instead of adding water, and cooking it in a slow cooker. A very fragrant and soft chicken dish!

Ingredients

3 chicken legs, each cut into two pieces

3tbsp curry powder

1tsp ground cumin

2 small onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

4 small carrots, thinly sliced

300g frozen peas

450ml coconut milk

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Methods

1. In a pan, heat olive oil and brown chicken for about 5 minutes on each side. Put chicken into the slow cooker.

2. Brown onion in the pan for about 5 minutes. Add carrots and spices, and cook for about 5 minutes. Pour them into the slow cooker.

3. Add the frozen peas and coconut milk into the slower cooker. Pour coconut milk all over the dish, and cook on low heat for about 6 hours.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

I served this with roasted sausages and pepper, as I found them in the fridge. But I think this would go better with a simple green salad.

Ingredients

450g potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced

5 eggs, beaten

4 tasty tom tomatoes, sliced

175g mozzarella ball, torn into small pieces

1tsp dried dille

Olive oil

Salt and freshly grounded black pepper

Methods

1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, and fry the potatoes over medium heat for 10-15 minutes. Season with 1/2 tsp of dille and salt and pepper.

2. Pour the beaten eggs over the potatoes, and let it cook (without lid) for about 15-20 minutes or until the base is set.

3. Transfer the tortilla to a baking dish and cook under a hot grill for about 3 minutes.

4. Remove the dish from the oven and scatter with tomatoes and mozzarella pieces and the rest of the dille. Return the dish under the grill and cook for another 5-10 minutes, or until the tomatoes are soft and mozzarella is melted.